The Trump administration has begun recalling nearly 30 career diplomats from ambassadorial and senior embassy positions as part of a broader effort to realign U.S. foreign representation with President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.
According to two State Department officials familiar with the decision, chiefs of mission in at least 29 countries were informed last week that their assignments would end in January. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the internal nature of the personnel changes.
Most of the diplomats affected were appointed during the Biden administration and had initially remained in place during the early months of Trump’s second term, when political appointees were the primary focus of leadership changes. That situation shifted last week, when career ambassadors began receiving formal notices from Washington regarding their departures.
Ambassadors serve at the discretion of the president, though they typically remain in their posts for three to four years. The diplomats being recalled are not being dismissed from the Foreign Service and are expected to return to Washington for reassignment if they choose, officials said.
The State Department declined to confirm the exact number of ambassadors affected but defended the move, describing it as routine. In a statement, the department said ambassadors act as the president’s personal representatives abroad and that it is within the president’s authority to ensure those representatives support his policy priorities.
Africa has been the most affected region, with ambassadors recalled from 13 countries: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda.
Asia follows, with changes in six countries: Fiji, Laos, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Additional recalls involve four European countries Armenia, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovakia along with two countries each in the Middle East (Algeria and Egypt), South and Central Asia (Nepal and Sri Lanka), and the Western Hemisphere (Guatemala and Suriname).
The news was first reported by Politico and has prompted concern among some U.S. lawmakers and the American Foreign Service Association, which represents U.S. diplomats.